Do You Sleep?
by Bushwah
Summary: "How many days has it been since you last slept?" "I don't keep track." "You do, though. I hear you at three, four, and six in the morning, at eight, nine, and eleven at night. Counting the hours." Kurapika smiled weakly." Just because I count hours doesn't mean I count days." Leorio and Kurapika have a conversation about sleep. Pairing: Leorio x Kurapika, very mild. One-shot.


"Don't you ever sleep?"

Startled by the question, Kurapika looked over at his companion and smiled. "Mochiron." _Of course._

"It's just... I've never seen you asleep..."

"No, you wouldn't have."

"How many days has it been since you last slept?"

"Wakaranai." _I don't know._

"You do, though. I hear you at three, four, and six in the morning, at eight, nine, and eleven at night. Counting the hours."

Kurapika smiled weakly. "Just because I count hours doesn't mean I count days."

"How many weeks has it been since you slept last?"

The smile dropped off Kurapika's face like a chain rattling over a mountaintop and crashing hundreds of meters below. "Too many," he said hollowly. "Far too many."

"Tell me... how many?"

"What business of yours are my dreams?"

"I never brought up your dreams."

"I don't remember how many weeks. I don't remember how many days. I don't count the hours past the end of the day. Don't ask me what it is to bear this burden. Even were the words to exist that described my situation, I would not speak them. Now open the window. Kudasai."

"Kurapika..."

"Akete." _Open it._ The blonde boy's eyes were harsh in a way that even Killua's could not be, but they were beginning to dim. Leorio could recognize the signs of extreme exhaustion. His breathing was shallow, and when he put his ear (somewhat abashedly) to Kurapika's chest, his pulse was weak. Leorio petted Kurapika's hair, fear entering those soulful eyes before they faded into darkness.

###

Leorio sat there for a bare second, Kurapika passed out on his lap. His eyes closed in relief. That darned stubborn kid had finally gone to sleep.

And then the screams began. Terrible, racking wails pulled from the depths of Kurapika's soul. His aura flickered and faded altogether, though Leorio's frantic hand on his throat confirmed an erratic pulse.

Kurapika was alive, and somehow that cheered Leorio as he sat, cradling his friend as he screamed until the only noise he could make was a strangled painful half whisper, the same word over and over again: _Run._

_The memories... will they ever leave him?_ Leorio couldn't put the brakes on that train of thought, and the whole of it spilled into his open mind. _Kurapika afflicted with vengeance forever. Hatred for the Spiders, hatred for the world that brought them forth. But in the end, there would be only one target for his all-consuming rage. _Kurapika himself.

Leorio did not intend to let that happen. He knew that his medicines would do no good, so he sat alone on the floor and began to gather his Nen. _It's not over yet, Kurapika. I'm coming for you._

_###_

_(Kurapika's POV)_

Leorio's probing put me off balance, and I have no idea how I'm going to survive tonight. The first step, obviously, is to find and recruit my eternal partner-against-the-dark, Killua. However, I snapped at him earlier... he might still be smarting... best to tough it out until he comes to me or until I can't stand it anymore.

Wait... I'm not tired... and the last thing I remember...

Time to open my eyes.

"You're awake?" Leorio himself, looking relieved and somewhat drained. He probably tried using Nen on me... Darn him. Why does he always have to get into these situations with me?

"I am. And I intend to find out what you did to me. I never sleep except in a soundproofed room... now you know why you've never seen me."

"Did to you? I didn't do anything. You told me to open the window, and I refused, and then you... passed out."

"And it never occurred to you that I might have a perfectly sound reason?"

He starts to stutter out a response, _shock_ and _time_ and _worry_ and _confusion_, but I cut him off. " A _reason_ to want the windows open, all day, every day, in any room I'm in? I'm not obsessive-compulsive, Leorio. Why didn't you open the window?" I can't think of any more words. I'm so tired now. So incredibly tired. And yet, there's another part of me, the part of me that relives the Phantom pain of that night, every night, that makes me never want to sleep again.

And yet, I can't bring myself to resist anymore. I lean into Leorio's strong grip, and somehow it's comforting. For the first time in years, I sleep for hours and hours without a single nightmare.

I must be in heaven.


End file.
